It seems only prudent, not to say courteous under the circumstances, for us
all to try to find out who might have the copyright to a song we like before
performing it in public for pay. It gives us a chance to support the Sylvias
out there, and avoid the legions of lawyers in the hire of Disney et al.
What this all means for the future of the folk process is less clear. In the
old days tunes were like a social disease; you got them from a friend who got
them from a friend... Now most of us learn our music from the radio, and the
line between public domain and private property is hard to discern. On the
other hand, most of the people writing for the 'folk' market are people I
would as soon support anyway, and most of them would probably be pleased to
know that their music is being performed.
I guess my main reservation is the copyrighting of arrangements of
traditional tunes. I realize this is a gray area; making a good arrangement
is a lot of work, but just because Aaron Copeland used 'Simple Gifts' in his
ballet 'Appalachian Spring' does that mean the rest of the world should stop
singing it? In the closely related patent field there is a provision that an
invention has to be something that would not be obvious to a knowledgeable
practitioner in the field. In musical terms I would think that would imply
that Aaron's copyright is defenseable, because most of us folkies wouldn't
know how to do the orchestration, but that most string band arrangements
would not be. (?) I dunno. Comments, anyone?
(Alan Carruth,
1996, All Rites Reversed)